1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head for use in thermally-assisted magnetic recording where a recording medium is irradiated with near-field light to lower the coercivity of the recording medium for data writing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, magnetic recording devices such as magnetic disk drives have been improved in recording density, and thin-film magnetic heads and recording media of improved performance have been demanded accordingly. Among the thin-film magnetic heads, a composite thin-film magnetic head has been used widely. The composite thin-film magnetic head has such a structure that a read head section including a magnetoresistive element (hereinafter, also referred to as MR element) for reading and a write head section including an induction-type electromagnetic transducer for writing are stacked on a substrate. In a magnetic disk drive, the thin-film magnetic head is mounted on a slider that flies slightly above the surface of the recording medium. The slider has a medium facing surface that faces the recording medium. The medium facing surface has an air inflow end (a leading end) and an air outflow end (a trailing end).
Here, the side of positions closer to the leading end relative to a reference position will be defined as the leading side, and the side of positions closer to the trailing end relative to the reference position will be defined as the trailing side. The leading side is the rear side in the direction of travel of the recording medium relative to the slider. The trailing side is the front side in the direction of travel of the recording medium relative to the slider.
To increase the recording density of a magnetic recording device, it is effective to make the magnetic fine particles of the recording medium smaller. Making the magnetic fine particles smaller, however, causes the problem that the magnetic fine particles drop in the thermal stability of magnetization. To solve this problem, it is effective to increase the anisotropic energy of the magnetic fine particles. However, increasing the anisotropic energy of the magnetic fine particles leads to an increase in coercivity of the recording medium, and this makes it difficult to perform data writing with existing magnetic heads.
To solve the foregoing problems, there has been proposed a technology so-called thermally-assisted magnetic recording. The technology uses a recording medium having high coercivity. When writing data, a write magnetic field and heat are simultaneously applied to the area of the recording medium where to write data, so that the area rises in temperature and drops in coercivity for data writing. The area where data is written subsequently falls in temperature and rises in coercivity to increase the thermal stability of magnetization. Hereinafter, a magnetic head for use in thermally-assisted magnetic recording will be referred to as a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,068,453 B2 discloses a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head that employs an electrically resistive heater as a means for heating a recording medium. However, it is difficult for this head to heat only a minute region of the recording medium, and thus the recording density thereof can be increased with difficulty.
For thermally-assisted magnetic recording, a known method for heating only a minute region of a recording medium is to use near-field light. A known method for generating near-field light is to use a plasmon generator, which is a piece of metal that generates near-field light from plasmons excited by irradiation with laser light. The laser light to be used for generating near-field light is typically guided through a waveguide, which is provided in the slider, to the plasmon generator disposed near the medium facing surface of the slider.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0058272 A1 discloses a technology in which the surface of the core of the waveguide and the surface of the plasmon generator are arranged to face each other with a gap therebetween, so that evanescent light that occurs from the surface of the core based on the light propagating through the core is used to excite surface plasmons on the plasmon generator to generate near-field light based on the excited surface plasmons.
A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head that employs a plasmon generator as a source of generation of near-field light is configured so that the write head section includes a main pole, which produces a write magnetic field, and the plasmon generator. The main pole has an end face located in the medium facing surface. The plasmon generator has a near-field light generating part located in the medium facing surface. For the thermally-assisted magnetic recording head, it is demanded that the end face of the main pole and the near-field light generating part of the plasmon generator be located in close proximity to each other.
To increase the linear recording density of a magnetic recording device, it is effective to use a perpendicular magnetic recording system in which the direction of magnetization of signals to be written on tracks of a recording medium is perpendicular to the plane of the recording medium. It is also effective to increase, on the tracks, the gradient of the change in write magnetic field intensity with respect to the change in position along the direction in which the tracks extend, i.e., the direction along the tracks (this gradient will hereinafter be referred to as the write field intensity gradient). These also apply to a magnetic recording device that employs thermally-assisted magnetic recording.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0058272 A1 discloses a technology for increasing the write field intensity gradient by providing a bottom shield on the leading side of the main pole, the bottom shield having an end face located in the medium facing surface. In the thermally-assisted magnetic recording head disclosed in this publication, however, there is a relatively large distance between the end face of the bottom shield and the end face of the main pole in the medium facing surface because the core and the plasmon generator are interposed between the bottom shield and the main pole. This thermally-assisted magnetic recording head therefore has a disadvantage in that it is difficult for the bottom shield to exert its function satisfactorily.